For your brand. For your business. Love is your strategic advantage.

I work with a lot of big organizations. “Love” isn’t mentioned much as a strategic asset. Throw in the fact that many of these are financial services companies and the idea of talking about love as a business essential pretty much goes out the window.

Unfortunately, “love” makes the elder statesmen in the C-suite feel a little uneasy (“Can’t we just let customer satisfaction people and that touchy-feely person in HR who likes to hug take care of the love stuff?”)

I’ve had some executives protest that this isn’t true. They will point to all the times they have told employees, customers, and prospects that this organization cares. I’m sorry. But care isn’t the same as love. “We care” is way overused. And honestly, isn’t it the price to play? I mean, what’s the alternative? Not caring?

Sadly, love doesn’t have a place in the vernacular of a vast majority of businesses.

What is this thing called love (and what does it have to do with my brand?)

Think about the people we love. We listen to their worries and problems. We empathize with them (not just sympathize), really trying to feel what they’re going through. We think about how we might help. And act on that. Because that’s what we do for the ones we love. It’s how we show love.If we truly want to engage someone. I mean in a deeply meaningful and significant way. We have to want to really help them. And in order to do that, we have to start with love.

When love is our mindset, we act differently than if we simply care. We begin to think about how we can make a difference in a life (this is the definition of a Big Audacious Meaning.) Without it, anything we say or do will feel like slick marketing talk or just another sales pitch. In today’s ever-accelerating world, we have way too much of that. What we’re starved for is that feeling that someone loves us. Imagine that being at the core of our brand. Imagine everyone engaging with our brand feeling loved.

When we talk about a great brand, we refer to it as being “loved”. Coincidence? I think not.

Love is how brands become irresistible. And it’s why love is an incredible strategic asset.